The Harvard wrestling team took just five wrestlers to the difficult Midlands National Tournament held on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30 at Northwestern.

Despite the diminished squad, the Crimson managed a respectable 18th place with 32.5 points--edging out both Lehigh and Cornell, which both fielded full teams.

Harvard competed very well against some of the top wrestlers in the nation, including beating Iowa twice in its two head-to-head matchups with the Hawkeye grapplers. Iowa dominated the rest of the field, winning the tournament by over 50 points.

Senior Joe Killar, wrestling at 165 pounds, with time expiring, nearly pulled off an escape that would have propelled him into the finals of the tournament, but had to settle for third place. He gave up four escapes on the meet.

Senior Ed Mosley moved up to fourth overall nationally knocking off then No. 3 Josh Koscheck of Edinboro. He nearly pulled off another difficult match against Rick Springman of Penn. He had the only takedown of the match, but Springman scored a fall from the neutral position to give him the win. The loss gave Mosley fourth.

Sophomore heavyweight Dawid Rechul continued his successful season, picking up three victories, but fell one win short of placing. He lost 3-2 to Seth Charles of Cornell and 4-3 to Jon Lovrich of Northern Illinois.

Freshman Max Odom dropped both his matches at 149 pounds, while senior Kevin Kurtz split his two.

One wrestler intended to be on the Crimson's short list for Midlands was junior 133 pounder Matt Picarsic. Picarsic is still rehabilitating his knee after successful surgery. He is expected to return for the Crimson's Jan. 29 meet against Lehigh.

As a precursor for that meet, Harvard swept its three matches against the Mountain Hawks.

Riding the momentum of its strong showing at Midlands, the Crimson departed yesterday for the Virginia Duals, where it will again face the top-ranked wrestlers in the nation.